A Decade Of Nottingham Blogging

Well today's the day, Nottingham Daily Photo is now ten years old.

It's been a long, interesting, but sometimes disappointing journey. But most of the time it has been fun, and I have been to take photos at some great places and met some very nice people.

I like to think that my photography has come on in leaps and bounds, and I take photos a lot more professionally now than I used to.  I've also gone through quite a few cameras by different companies. I started off with a little Canon point & shoot, next came Panasonic. Canon again. A DSLR this time, but couldn't get on with it. So I sold it and got a Nikon D90. Which I enjoyed using. But it got damaged. I got some insurance money for it, and instead of getting another one, Gail & I invested in the bigger D3s instead.

Bigger and heavier it was, but then came along the nifty Olympus EM-5, which was half the size and half the weight; but the photos are just as good. I have since slightly upgraded to the EM-1, which I am very happy with and will probably go on using until it wears out.

Strangely enough my first blog entry wasn't about Nottingham at all, but Dubai. My early posts were also about Sydney, Crete and Bangkok. My first one about Nottingham appeared on April 3rd.

So now over 3300 entries later, we arrive at today's post. A rather cute cuddly fox that I took yesterday at Bardills, our local garden centre.  I thought he resembled Sherlock Holmes, with his little cap and waistcoat.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Who can resist this cute toy lion, with his sly look and smile?

I saw him in a shop window display and the child in me went "ah", and of course I just had to take a photo.

It looks like Leo is in the circus, but he wouldn't look that happy if he was, as circuses are terrible places for animals, with the cruel treatment that they receive to make them perform.

Fortunately animal based circuses are on the way out in the UK, but sadly other countries still have them and don't respect the rights of animals and the fact that they are living beings.

Bunny Cuddles

Well the clocks went forward early this morning and what a difference it seems to have made to the weather. Yes it's still cold, but the sun actually shined today, and for more than ten minutes.

But we decided to stay in today and do a few jobs, instead of wandering off somewhere in the search of a photo or two. We might do that tomorrow, it being a Bank Holiday.

So what's been my task today? Well we are setting up our own studio in a spare bedroom, and yesterday, we pulled up the old carpet and underlay, and so today I have been trying to do something with the floorboards. They are in good condition, so I have been sanding the old varnish, paint and stuff off, then I am going to re-varnish them so they look quite presentable in a photograph when we start in ernest.

As we haven't been anywhere, here's a little Easter scene that I shot in the conservatory. The soft toy belongs to Gail, and the little sheep, which is actually the top of a pencil, was a present from a friend of mine who went to New Zealand on holiday a few years ago.

You might not be surprised that practically all those little chocolate Easter eggs have now been eaten!

Fairground Attraction

As I explained last night, I primarily went to Goose Fair to seek out some interesting people to photograph, but didn't really find any.  I did however come across this rather attractive young lady.

It looks like she has just won a cuddly duck.  There were lots of cuddly toys on offer for testing one's skills. Hoop-la, shooting, lucky cards etc. I wonder how she won hers?

She was right to wear a scarf, as it was quite cold last night. Still it is the time of year now for cold nights. It's raining while I am writing this. I quite enjoy listening to the sound of the raindrops falling on the windows. Just glad not to be out in it though.